Post Production
Editing Assistant - Connor Termine
Editing Color - Bailey Fry
Unreal Engine Operator - Elliot Hawkins
Marketing
Socila Media Manager - Sheryce Kai Hng Gooi
BTS Photographer - Nick Jorss
Directed By Tom Shaw-Miles
Screenplay - Joshua Baker
Story - Tom Shaw-Miles
Produced by Noah Hansen
Cast - Erika Naddei, Martin Ingle, Brandon Clarke
Director of Photography - Joe Lederhose
Production Designer - Thomas Butler
Editor - Molly Turner
Costume Designer - Eve Marsden
Music Composer - Jordan Miller
First AD - Natalie Doolette / Namratha Kadiyala
Script Continuity - Austin Richardson
Production Assistant - Cameron Samimi
Camera Department
Cam Op - Zoe Morison
First Assistant Camera / Data Wrangler - Macaria Lo
Second Assistant Camera - Maxine Gamer
Electric Department
Gaffer - Renik Cowan
Grip/s - Evelyn Younger, Pat Roach, Zephenia Behan-Howell
Sound Department
Recorder - Cooper Hauff
Boom Op - Jordan Miller
Post Sound - Jordan Miller
Art Department
Art Director - Connor Wildes
Art Set Designer - Molly Turner
Art Assistant - Aidan Williams
Virtual Environment Artist - Elliot Hawkins
Cast & Crew
Genre: Sci-fi / Psychological Drama
Runtime: Approx. 12–15 minutes
Format: 2.39:1 / 4K / Digital
Language: English
Production Country: Australia
Filming Locations: QUT Kelvin Grove Virtual Production Studio
Budget: $1500 - $2000
Production & Budget Overview
Artificial vs. Authentic Emotion - what does it mean to “feel” when technology can simulate intimacy?
Surveillance and Control - love as a system of observation and programming.
Isolation in Connection - loneliness amplified by digital perfection.
The Human Body as Resistance - physical touch as rebellion against mechanized life.
THEMES
MAE - Female (18 - 35)
The essential corporate asset – assertive, dominant, and laser focused. A workaholic with a high need for structure and control, the revelation that her life was never hers throws her into an existential crisis. In the hours in which John is inoperative, she prepares for the first rebellion of her life - one that will set her free, or damn her forever.
JOHN - Male (18-35)
Marketed as a “House Spouse,” John is designed as an all-in-one solution to the emotional, logistical, and intimate dimensions of partnership. His personality is artificially sweet, attentive, and affectionate—but beneath the surface, he is a coercive instrument of corporate control. His core function is not love or companionship, but behavioural engineering: optimising his partner's choices, routines, and emotional responses in ways that serve LuVCo’s commercial interests.
DAX - Male (18-25)
On the surface, Dax is a classic himbo—charming, tender, and emotionally transparent. But beneath the easy smile and surface-level bravado lies a man deeply aware of his precarious position. He’s resourceful, instinct-driven, and acutely tuned to the power dynamics that govern every transaction in his life
KEY CHARACTERS
TEASER TRAILER
Artificial Intimacy is a film born out of both fear and fascination. It’s a story set in the distant future, but it speaks to a very present anxiety: the deletion of human connection under the weight of systemic exploitation, technological overreach, and emotional burnout.
This film explores a world where love has been commercialized, intimacy outsourced to machines, and people are valued only for their productivity. In this world, vulnerability is dangerous, and affection has a price tag. The loneliness of my generation, numbed by screens, exhausted by work, and increasingly estranged from each other is the emotional engine that drives this story. In many ways, Artificial Intimacy is my response to the numbing grind of late-stage capitalism, and the quiet horror of watching human tenderness be replaced by sleek, efficient, synthetic substitutes.
Visually and tonally, the film straddles the line between science fiction and psychological horror. I want to create a world that is both visually seductive and spiritually suffocating - clean, orderly, and soul-crushing. Influences are drawn from the sterile dystopias of Blade Runner, Akira and Black Mirror. The horror in this film isn't gore or monsters, it's emotional erosion. It's the terrifying possibility that our need for connection might be exploited, packaged, and sold back to us.
Tom Shaw-Miles - Director of Artificial Intimacy
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Production stills from Artificial Intimacy.
Filmed at QUT Kelvin Grove Virtual Production Studio
LOGLINE
Mae, an ambitious career woman commits to a daring relationship with street-smart Dax. Yet her search for a genuinely human experience provokes the wrath of her malfunctioning synthetic husband, John.
SYNOPSIS
Set in the distant future, ecological collapse has left human civilisation relegated to Towers – massive artificial environments governed by corporations competing for power, wealth, and resources. Ordinary people are microscopic pieces of a massive economic machine, which controls far more of their lives than anyone truly understands. Hours are long and unforgiving, and people live and die by their work.
Keeping the young and lonely in check is LuvCo’s House Spouse: a custom, programmable, artificial model of android partner designed to simulate love, intimacy, and affection, while ostensibly taking care of your every human need. In reality, their purpose is far more sinister, as they work to position their clients towards the interests of their manufacturers.
On level 89, careerwoman Mae lives for her work as a devoted LuvCo employee. Driven by an insatiable desire to climb to the corporate ladder, Mae’s world is shattered when she discovers the truth behind her synthetic partner. Desperate for something real, Mae summons the courage to book Dax, an escort from the ground floor, in the small hours of the night she can steal away from her House Spouse John. Dax and Mae’s differing livelihoods and social classes collide as they learn what it means to strive for a meaningful life in a world hollowed by greed and hostile to humanity
